Good vs Bad Food

I was a big believer that certain foods were good - such as chicken breast, brown rice, oatmeal, vegetables, protein shakes & so on, while others were bad.

On the flipside, I was convinced that junk foods would instantly lead to fat gain & even a small sliver of cheesecake, a handful of fries or a sandwich could wreck a whole day of progress. I avoided these foods like the plague & if I did have them, it would often mean the rest of the day was a write-off because I’d binge mindlessly. Know the feel?

Good/ bad foods? Nope. Are there good & bad diets? Sure. But this is still a subjective topic. A diet that you are eating with far too many or far too few calories & satisfies the majority of your energy requirement with junk food & little protein/ fruits/ vegetables is probably not the best diet. But individual foods can really only be classed as nutrient-dense or nutrient-deficit.

Nutrient-dense foods are typically pretty filling for the amount of calories they contain & provide you with some goodness, either in the way of vitamins & minerals, protein, essential fats & so on.

Nutrient-void foods are much higher in calories and not very filling & don’t have many health benefits, such as burgers, pizzas etc. That doesn’t mean you can’t eat them though. All it means is that they likely need to be included in smaller amounts.

By classing foods as good & bad, not only are you being scientifically inaccurate & ambiguous, you’re more than likely setting yourself up for a disordered relationship with food, as well as making your diet way tougher than it needs to be.

You don’t earn brownie points or lose fat faster by filling your daily energy/ macro nutrient requirements with only foods you perceive to be ‘clean’, nor do you lose fat faster or build muscle more quickly by making things harder than they need to be.

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Avoiding the foods you love is a surefire way to drive you to want to eat all of them. By allocating some of your daily calories to foods that make you happy & nourish the soul, you’re doing yourself the best possible favour you ever could in making your diet more sustainable.

Once you understand calories & how your diet as a whole is much more important than the individual foods you eat, your diet & consequently your life will become inherently easier.

You’ll be able to eat at restaurants, go out with friends, partake in family dinners & even drink alcohol without feeling as if you’re ruining your progress or having to feel guilty about what you’re consuming.

You need to eat a certain amount of calories/ protein/ fats/ carbs every day – it isn’t going to kill you to get some of those from foods or drinks or both that you really love including in your diet.

After all, the more you're able to enjoy your diet, the longer you're able to stick to it, which means more long term progress.

Next, I will be going to tell you why your glorious cheat meals are probably the reason you aren't making any progress at all.

Thanks for reading.

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